Grand Jury In Ferguson Shooting Investigated For Misconduct

The Huffington Post  | By Hilary Hanson

Posted: 10/01/2014 8:47 pm EDT Updated: 3 hours ago

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Officials in St. Louis County, Missouri, said they are “looking into” allegations of misconduct on the grand jury hearing the case against Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.
The county prosecutor's office received information Wednesday morning suggesting that a juror may have discussed evidence in the case with a friend, office spokesman Ed Magee told The Washington Post.
At 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, a woman with the Twitter handle @thesusannichols tweeted, “I know someone sitting on the grand jury of this case There isn’t enough at this point to warrant an arrest,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The @thesusannichols account has since been deleted, but activist Shaun King tweeted a screenshot of the message Wednesday afternoon:
Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he doesn’t believe any jurors are really gabbing about the case to friends.
“I’d be shocked if a member of the grand jury said anything,” McCulloch said.
Wilson, who is white, shot Brown, who was black and unarmed, on Aug. 9, setting off massive protests in Ferguson.
The grand jury, which has been hearing evidence since Aug. 20, is tasked with determining whether a crime was committed, as well as "whether there is probable cause to believe the defendant committed it.” If the jury decides Wilson committed a crime, he can be formally charged.
UPDATE 10-2-2014: The woman whose Twitter account suggested she had been speaking to a grand juror told CNN on Thursday that her account “had to have been hacked.” She claims she did not send the tweet, has not used her account in months and thought that she had deleted it. The prosecutor’s office investigation is still pending.